Type-writer-carriage-feeding mechanism.



J. ALEXANDER.

TYPE WRITER CARRIAGE FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1B. 1911. 1,048,265 Patented Dec.24,1912.

2 SEEETS'SHEET 1.

J. ALEXANDER.

TYPE WRITER CARRIAGE FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED APR.1B, 1911.

1,048,265. Patented Dec. 24, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES nwmro/e .T 0 all whom it may concern:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE ALEXANDER; OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO CHARLES G. WILLIS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

TYPE-WRITER-CARRIAGE-FEEDING MECHANISM.

Be it known that I, JESSE ALEXANDER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of- New York, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Typeriton Carriage-Feeding Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My. invention relates particularly to what is commonly termed the escapement by means of which thefeeding of the carriage step by step is controlled. It has been customary 'to use an oscillating dog for this purpose having two teeth, one movable relatively to the other. These teeth by the 08011- lation of the dog are alternately interposed with the teeth of a rack bar on the carriage and the carriage being under tension of a suitable device is moved step by step from right to left. The teeth of the dog of said constructions are subjected to great wear and inaccuracy of movement due to the oscillation. v

It is my object to avoid these diiiiculties and provlde a construction which will be more durable and positive in its action and permit of greater rapidity.

The invention consists in the use of an intermittently rotating wheel having teeth for operating with the teeth of the carriage rack bar and in the details of construction by which this escapement wheel is operated.

Figure 1, is a vertical section and side view showing'the principal features of my invention Fig. 2, is a detail side view of a feed arm and pawl. Fig. 3, is a plan view of the rear part of a machine with the escape- .ment of my invention. Fig. 4, is a vertical section looln'ng toward the rear and showing the escapement on an enlarged scale. Fig. 5, is a side view of the escapement wheel showing parts broken away. Fig. 6, is a side view of a spring plate of the escapement wheel.

The usual platen 1 is mounted in a suitable manner in the carriage which has side,

plates such as 2. The carriage is guided in its transverse movement on the bars 3 and .4. The carriage. 1s constantly under. tension tending to draw it toward the left by means of a suitable form of tension drum 5 connected to the carriage by a band 6. The intermittent movement from rightto left is controlledby the escapement which includes Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 18, 1911.

-machine in a suitable manner.

Patented Dec. 24,1912.

Serial No. 621,761.

the toothed rack bar 7 carried by the carriage and a rotating wheel having a plurality of radially arranged teeth such as 8 and 9. These teeth are all carried by the hub 10 which is mounted to rotate with the shaft 11. The teeth are'all mounted on a suitable form of pivot such as a curved wire 12 which is let into the groove 14 in the wheel. The teeth are held in place by means of the plate 15. All the teeth are normally under pressure of the spring-arms 16 so as to ress the teeth toward the right where t ey rest against the edge of the plate 15. Each tooth has a shoulder 17 adapted to abut against the hub 10 as shownin Fig. 1. Collars 18 and 19 are provided to hold the plate 15 and the spring plate 16 against the wheel. 'Normally one of the teeth such as 8 is in engagement with a tooth of the rack 7 and the tooth -8 is thus pressed toward the-left as shown in Fig. 4 by the tension of the carriage. The

other teeth all stand inclined toward the right in the position of the tooth 9.

The escapement is operated by the key and'type bar mechanism. The key. levers such as-20 are all pivoted at the rear of the Beneath the key lever extends a bar 21 which is carried by the two pivoted arms 22 and 241. A ratchet wheel 26 keyed on the shaft 11 is held from forward rotation b means of a spring pressed pawl 27. On tie. shaft 11 is loosely mounted the arm 28 carrying the pawl 29 which is pressed toward-the teeth.

of the ratchet 2.6 by spring 30 (see Fig. 2). The arm 28 is connected by a link 32 to the bar 21- beneath the key levers. This link 32 is=-pressed upwardly by means of a spring 33. The screw 34 is provided for adjusting the tension of the spring 33 and a check nut 35 may be employed on the screw 34.

When the key lever is depressed the bar 21 is pulled downward and the arm 28 oscillated downward so that the pawl 29 rotates the ratchet 26, shaft 11 and wheel 10in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1 through an angle equal to one tooth of the ratchet. When the key lever is released the spring 33. raises the pawl '21, link 32 and arm 28 and the pawl 27 prevents backward rotation of the ratchet'26. As the wheel 10 r0 tates the tooth-8 is retracted from its engagement with a tooth of the rack 7 so that the rack is released. 'The next tooth 9 being interposed to the left of the next tooth of the rack 7, the tension on the carriage moves it to the left until the tooth 9 is brought to 'the position formerly occupied by the tooth 8. Repetition of the key action brings the successive teeth of the wheel into cooperation with the teeth of the carriage rack bar successively. This distributes the wear on the teeth of the wheel so as to give a much greater length of life. Thisiconstruction also obviates the reversal of direction of the escapement Wheel, which moves intermittently step by step always in the same direction.

As it is sometimes desirable to move the carriagefreely from side to side I have provided meansto retract the rack bar 7 from the escapement wheel. For this purpose the rack bar may be carried by an arm or arms such as 40 pivoted at 42 in the carriage and held down in engagement with the escapement wheel by a spring 42. The rack can be retracted by tilting the handle 43 forwardly so that the arm 44 lifts the front end of the arm 40 and thus retracts the rack bar 7. I Y

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many changes in details of construction may be made without departing from the spiritand scope of my invention U and that the mechanism may be employed in machines I of types other than the one illustrated. w

What I claim is 1. In. a carriage feeding mechanism, a toothed rack, an escapement wheel having pivoted teeth and means for rotating said Wheel to bring said teeth successively into engagement with said rack.

2. In a carriage feeding mechanism. a toothed rack, an escapement wheel having spring pressed pivoted teeth for cooperating with said rack and means for rotating said wheel intermittently.

3. An escapement wheel for a carriage feeding mechanism, comprising a hub, a plurality of teeth pivotallyf carried thereby and a plate actingas a stop for said teeth in one-direction.

'4. An escapement wheel for a carriage feeding mechanism, com'prisinga hub, a plurality of teeth pivotally carried thereby and a plate acting as a stop for said teeth in one direction, said hub acting as a stop for said teeth in the opposite direction.

5. An escapemcnt wheel for a carriage feeding mechanism, comprising a. hub, a plurality of teeth pivotally carried thereby and a plate held against said hub having spring arms engaging said teeth.

6. In a typewriter, a transversely movable carriage, a tension device connected to said carriage, a toothed rack carried by said carriage, an escapement Wheel having a plurality of independently movable teeth for co-acting with said rack, a shaft for said wheel substantially parallel with said rack and means for intermittently rotating said wheel.

JESSE ALEXANDER.

Witnesses:-

E A. EIGHNER, CHAS. Gr. WILLIS.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. i 

